he year is 1938, and plumes of vapor have been spotted on Mars. Although the plumes are an interesting phenomenon, authorities such as scientist Richard Pearson assure the world that there is nothing to be worried about. Laughingly Pearson tells the world via CBS radio that there is no sign of life on the red planet, and a seismic disturbance in Grover's Mill, N.J., has no relation to the strange atmospheric conditions occurring 40 million miles away.
Pearson has to revise his opinion significantly when the seismic disturbance turns out to be a half-buried cylinder made of an "extra-terrestrial" material. With the world listening intently, CBS correspondent Carl Phillips describes the scene with a step-by-step "word picture" as Pearson approaches the alien craft with a white flag. At first the earthlings are met with indifference as the Martians go about their business, preparing to egress from their craft. But indifference soon turns to hostility as the aliens turn a deadly heat ray on the crowd that has surrounded their ship, slaughtering hundreds.
The National Guard is quickly called in to destroy the otherworldly invaders, and for an all-too-brief time it looks like the Martians will at best pose "an interesting outing for the troops." But soon the Martians unleash a death machine the size of a small skyscraper which wipes out the Guard's brigade of nearly 7,000 men. Then two other death machines emerge from the ship even as reinforcing cylinders begin landing all across the countryside...
"We annihilated the world before your ears..."
Although Orson Welles, Mercury Theatre and the Columbia Broadcasting System couldn't "soap the windows" of their listeners the night before Halloween back in 1938, they could annihilate the world for them. And that's exactly what they did with this radio adaptation of H.G. Wells's famous novel, War of the Worlds. The adaptation was written by Howard Koch, and it was realistic enough to panic some listeners who tuned in too late to realize the broadcast was merely a prank.
Koch used his medium to good effect, couching the first part of his drama as a series of special news reports interrupting a "regular" program of dance music. These updates on the seemingly innocent scientific oddity taking place on Mars served to pique interest, which Koch quickly built on with breathtaking, on-the-scene reports from Grover's Mill. How could listeners help but perch on the edge of their seats as Carl Phillips coolly intoned phrases such as, "I'll give you every detail as long as I can talk..."?
As the Martians spread their terror throughout New Jersey, Koch jacked up the tension using radio reports from the infantry and air force. These messages would ominously fall silent as the troops engaged the invaders, occasionally preceded by a telling, "Only one thing left..." Koch then used the show's intermission to segue into the first-person account of the "end of the world" by Pearson, a haunting and poignant monologue spoken by Welles.
It's easy to see why this broadcast created genuine panic back in 1938, and today it still stands as one of the most exhilarating SF radio shows in history. It is easily equal to Wells's original masterpiece.
